(Reuters) – A moment of silence and a prayer will be held on Thursday at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket where authorities say an avowed white supremacist shot and killed 10 people and wounded three others in a racist attack.
A day before the Tops Friendly Markets store will officially reopen, community members will gather at 2:30 p.m. local time to commemorate the two-month anniversary of the May 14 shooting, the grocery chain said in a statement.
The store has been fully renovated since the attack.
Ten days after the massacre, a mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, school left 19 children and two teachers dead. Seven weeks after the Buffalo massacre, seven people where shot dead at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
The attacks have reignited a longstanding national debate over U.S. gun laws.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said the Tops store reopening was a step forward in the community’s efforts to heal.
“It is important to move forward as a united and strong community. We will not let hate win,” he said.
Payton Gendron, 18, has been charged in federal court with hate crimes and firearms offenses. Authorities said he targeted the store because it was a hub in the predominantly Black tight-knit neighborhood.
He also faces 10 counts of first-degree murder and 10 counts of second-degree murder in state court.
In an interview on an Anti-Defamation League podcast, Brown said the store had been paying its 86 employees despite being closed following the shooting and had provided shuttles for shoppers to other Tops supermarkets.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Josie Kao)
